INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF THE LAY FRATERNITY CHARLES DE FOUCAULD Nº 89- Nazareth- Back to the Roots June 2013 News from our Association Bread of Life « Nazareth » Meeting at with our Pope Viviers Francis Summary Editorial 3 Only God Can – Father Guy Gilbert 4 Nazareth – Claudio and Sylvana Chiaruttini 5 The God of Jesus Christ – Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger 13 An inspiring new reading with a poetic approach 14 Fraternities News 15 -Africa 15 -America 28 -Asia 33 -Europe 34 -Arab World 36 Association Meeting at Viviers: April 1st-7th 42 -How CDF has read and meditated the Bible 42 - The prayer of the Christians in the land of Islam A Testimony from Algeria 44 Practical Information 47 An inspiring new reading with a poetic approach It’s not Easy 48 Editorial Dear lay brothers and sisters throughout the whole world, We hope that you are all well. This 89th edition of the Bulletin is dedicated to our life of Nazareth, a return to the roots. Nazareth? What is that? Nazareth is a city situated in northern Israel, in Galilee. But it is also the place where Jesus Christ spent his childhood. His whole life was hidden and is not described by the evangelists. Nazareth just had to attract Brother Charles with its simplicity and it was a changing point in his life. As a consequence, the lives of many people have changed. In this 89th edition of the International Bulletin, we share with you some thoughts about Nazareth and particularly everyone`s personal Nazareth. We share the bread of life with our new pope Francis who never stops inviting us to follow Jesus Christ and to be witnesses of his Love. Thank you to all of you who live Nazareth in their everyday lives, at work, in your families, with your friends and neighbors, to be the leaven in the dough of this world which is full of war and inequalities in order to be witnesses of the Gospel spreading peace and love to all of the people that we meet in our lives. Lastly, thank you to all of those who have helped us to realize this Bulletin, to those who have supplied us with information and to those who have helped with translations. We wish you to continue successfully in the paths of our loved ones, Charles de Foucauld and Jesus Christ in Nazareth. Enjoy reading and reflecting. International Bulletin - Nº89- June2013 3 Only God can… Only God can create, but you can add your touch to his creation. Only God can give life, but you can transmit and respect it, Only God can give health, but you can give advice, guidance, care. Only God can give Faith, but you can testify to it, Only God can give Hope, but you can restore confidence to your brother Only God can give Love, But you can teach the other how to love. Only God can give Joy but you can smile to all. Only God can give strength, but you can comfort one who has lost courage. Only God is the Way, but you can show it to others. Only God is Light, but you can make it shine in the eyes of others. Only God is life, but you can restore the will to live in others. Only God can cause miracles, but you can be the one who provides the five loaves and the two fishes. Only God can do what seems impossible, but you can do what is possible. Only God is self sufficient but he prefers to count on you. Father Guy Gilbert Adapted from a paper presented by Claudio and Sylvana Chiaruttini at the XXI International Conference of the Transfiguration Fellowship of Minor Orthodox Brotherhoods and the St Philaret’s Christian Orthodox Institute, Moscow, 28–30 Sept. 2011 Nazareth Everyday life as service in the footsteps of Blessed Charles de Foucauld The first time that Charles de Foucauld was touched by the profound meaning of Nazareth was during a pilgrimage he made to the Holy Land in 1888. This was to become also his vocation: the simple life of the Holy Family at Nazareth. In Nazareth he remained impressed by the fact that the Messiah had spent most of his existence sharing the ordinary life of his fellow villagers. He was to return to Nazareth where, as Br. Charles of Jesus, he could live in closer contact with the poor. Here he came to the conclusion that what is called the “hidden life” of Jesus, which lasted such a long time, should not be considered as a mere preparation for a few years of “public life.” Being Jesus the Saviour, His entire existence had to be consecrated to human salvation. Nazareth therefore had shown him the way: imitating Jesus in his Nazarene life, cooperating in God's plan of Salvation doing the ordinary activities of ordinary people in their daily life and giving them, by his example, an evidence of God’s love. In 1901 he moved from Nazareth deep into the Sahara, a place of drought and hostility. This is where for 15 years he chose to live at the service of the Tuaregs of the Hoggar, a Berber race of nomads, “the furthest removed, the most abandoned ” as one of them – more than that, as the least among them in imitation of the Lord Jesus. Charles de Foucauld was a man ahead of his times. Fifty years before the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council – which promoted the initiative of lay Christians in the apostolate – he was already aware of International Bulletin - Nº89- June2013 5 the importance of lay people for evangelisation. He wrote the Directoire des Frères et des Sœurs du Sacré Cœur de Jésus as a rule for a lay association. In a letter to his friend Joseph Hours he wrote about what for him was the essence of being a committed lay Christian: Certainly there have to be the Priscillas and Aquilas on the side of a priest, to meet those whom he cannot meet, to enter into places where he cannot go, to reach out to those who have moved away from him, and to evangelise through friendly contact by becoming an overflowing goodness to all, a love always ready to give of itself … The laity should become apostles to all they can reach: at first their family, close relations and friends, but not only them, love cannot be restrictive, it embraces all those who are embraced by the Heart of Jesus.1 Foucauld described apostleship as “a strict obligation of love.” In living the Gospel, love is not an option it is an obligation. The Lay Fraternity and the apostolate of friendship The lay component of the Foucauldian Family gained strength in the 1950's with the foundation of our Fraternity on the initiative of René Voillaume, founder of the Little Brothers of Jesus and a great diffuser, together with Little Sister Magdeleine of Jesus, of the message of Br. Charles. We are lay persons, some married, others not. Amongst us there are also priests who minister to the lay members, besides being members themselves. On the example of Br. Charles, we are conscious that our primary service towards the Church and towards society is through our ordinary and everyday life within our family and at work. Our model is the Family of Jesus at Nazareth, an example that is relevant for every human condition across space and time, and our fount of inspiration is the Gospel. In fact, in its very opening, the Directoire states: 1 Charles de Foucauld, Letter to Joseph Hours of 3rd May 1912, Assekrem, Hoggar, Algeria. The members of the Fraternity will as a rule ask themselves, in every matter, what Jesus would think or do in the same circumstance – and do it. Our spirituality is not about great schemes. It does not seek to change the world through action. It only seeks to change the person silently but thoroughly from within. As a result one lives the ordinariness of life in a simple manner, only seeking to transmit what Jesus would have transmitted to those He met. In this way others do not see the servant, they see the Master – our Beloved Lord – and in doing so seek to know and love Him like we do. For the Foucauldian family everyone is a sister or brother. In this sense we take our inspiration from the Gospel of Matthew: “What you did for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of mine, you did it for me” (Mt 25:40). The Italian spiritual writer and Little Brother Carlo Carretto expresses in this manner the Foucauldian ideal: To me the greatest inspiration for the spirituality of the laity is in the life of Jesus, Mary and Joseph at Nazareth. The imitation of Nazareth is no small thing. When I think that a door, a floor, a wall, were all that divided a holy family like that of Jesus from that of a neighbour who, although going through the same rhythm of life, the same daily grind, the same routine, is at the other extremity in terms of sadness, hate, impurity, greed and at times despair, I am convinced of the immense richness of the Gospel message. The same actions, if carried out in God's light, radically transform the life a person, of a family, of a society.2 Carretto goes on to say that the watershed for these human conditions lies deep in a person’s heart. It is for this reason that the spirituality of Nazareth targets the heart of man wherein lies the power 2 Carlo Carretto: “Letters from the desert”.